The UK government says it has “turned the corner on [arts] underfunding over the last decade” by investing £1.5bn in cultural organisations over a five-year period (2025-30). The funding package includes £600m for national museums and other organisations supported by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Crucially, £160m has been earmarked for regional and local museums to help “tackle maintenance backlogs”.
Arts Council England (ACE) also gets an uplift with a 5% increase next year for its regularly funded National Portfolio Organisations. A further £230m has been earmarked for heritage, which includes £75m for at-risk heritage in the form of grants towards repairs and building conservation.
The move was welcomed by numerous culture professionals who say that this funding announcement is timely, with one museum professional describing it as “overdue”. Meanwhile, some key artists endorsed the funding announcement including the sculptor Antony Gormley who said in a statement: “I am delighted to hear our government is delivering for the arts through this serious uplift in funding.”
The Art Fund’s director, Jenny Waldman, added: “We’re especially pleased to see £760m for museums including over £150m for the UK’s local and regional museums, which will help to safeguard our world-leading collections for future generations. Museums have been placed under immense strain in recent years; this funding is a huge boost which recognises the crucial impact they have in communities and their central role in ensuring everyone across the country can enjoy our incredible cultural heritage.”
Sharon Heal, the director of the UK Museums Association, says that it welcomes this additional funding, which comes at a critical time for the sector when many museums will be negotiating budgets to ensure their survival over the next few years. “Local museums are doing amazing work connecting to their communities and creating space and opportunities for civic renewal and for the conversations that we need to have in society,” she says.
Regional museum chiefs respond
Tony Butler, the executive director at Derby Museums, wrote on LinkedIn that he is especially happy at the recognition of support for civic and regional museums. “In particular, £146.4m through the Museum Estates and Development Fund to tackle maintenance backlogs, and £13.6m museum transformation programme to help organisations towards more sustainable business models [£160m in total]. I look forward to hearing more details about this fund.”
Laura Pye, the director of National Museums Liverpool, said: “Investment in museum maintenance—both for regional and national institutions—is essential if we are to protect our shared heritage and ensure our collections can be enjoyed for generations to come.” An anonymous regional museum curator said though that “civic museums [usually funded by local authorities] need more money to stay afloat”.
Culture minister feedback
In a call trailing the package, the culture minister Ian Murray was asked to clarify how much of the funding package is made up of new investment. “There’s a significant amount of new money but this is all new money since the [2024] election,” he said. Some funds are pre-existing such as Creative Foundations Fund, which was announced last May with an £85m pot administered by ACE. This fund, aimed at “renewing cultural assets”, now amounts to £425m which will support around 300 capital projects in arts venues countrywide.
“Obviously that’s a fund that’s already here but we’re bolstering that with more money. £1.5bn over the course of this parliament is a huge amount and a new additional injection to the sector. This is a real commitment from this government which cares about the arts and culture sectors,” Murray added.
Murray was also asked if the £600m for national museums will enable them to keep free admission for all visitors. “The answer to your question is that for every penny you’re going to put into the infrastructure for capital spending, there’s a penny less that the museums and buildings and heritage buildings are having to find themselves for capital spend. The answer to your question is they’re not linked, but obviously every single penny you put in helps,” he said.
Culture department underspend
However, the UK National Audit Office (NAO) recently published a report that found DCMS has “consistently underspent” over the past five years. Museums and galleries underspent their resource departmental expenditure limit (funding for operational costs from the DCMS) by £64m in 2024-25. The DCMS group total expenditure from 2024 to 2025 was £7.6bn, a decrease of £259m from 2023–24.
The NAO says that the “DCMS has consistently underspent against its delegated limits for resource, capital and total spending over the past five years. Museums and galleries contributed the largest underspend, driven by increased visitor income and using their own reserves, rather than expecting additional departmental funding.” The audit office also warns that DCMS faces a 1.4% average real-terms funding decline over the next five years.
